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3 B1G kickers named to Lou Groza Award Watch List
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A trio of B1G place kickers have been added to the Lou Groza Award preseason watch list ahead of the 2020 season. The list was released on Wednesday afternoon.
The three B1G kickers included this year are: Keith Duncan (Iowa), Jake Pinegar (Penn State) and Blake Haubeil (Ohio State). Both Duncan and Haubeil are seniors while Pinegar is a junior.
Last season, Haubeil knocked home 86.7 percent of his attempts (13-of-15). He converted a long of 55 yards and was a perfect 85-of-85 on extra point attempts, accounting for 125 points for the Buckeyes during a 13-1 campaign.
Duncan was called into duty frequently last season, concluding the year with 34 attempts and making 29 of those. He was an outstanding 14-of-18 in attempts between 40-49 yards and was also perfect on PAT tries, knocking down all 32. Duncan had a long of 49 yards during 2019 and drilled game-winning field goal attempts in rivalry victories over Iowa State and Nebraska.
Pinegar missed just one field goal try last season, converting on 11-of-12 field goal attempts during the season, accounting for the highest percentage of the three kickers on this list (91.7). He did miss two extra point attempts, but still converted on 56-of-58 tries. His season long was from 47 yards out.
Last year’s winner of the Lou Groza Award was Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship. The last B1G kicker to win the award was Maryland’s Brad Craddock in 2014.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB